by Dan Mitchell | Feb 17, 2022 | Blogs, Economics
I’ve written columns about wonky economic concepts such as “deadweight loss” and “public goods.” Today’s topic is “rent seeking,” which is part of “public choice” and is described by Professor Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University. To elaborate, here’s a video from...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 16, 2022 | Blogs, Free Market
When I first wrote about the Index of Economic Freedom back in 2010, the United States was comfortably among the world’s 10-freest nations with a score of 78 out of 100. By last year, America had dropped to #20, with a very mediocre score of 74.8....
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 12, 2022 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation
The Laffer Curve is a method for illustrating the relationship between tax rates, taxable income, and tax revenue. But it’s important to realize that there are actually lots of varieties. The Laffer Curve for capital gains taxes, for instance, will...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 9, 2022 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Three years ago, I unveiled this video to help explain that trade deficits are nothing to worry about. The most important thing to understand from the video is that the flip side of a trade deficit is a capital surplus. To be more specific, foreigners earn dollars by...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 1, 2022 | Blogs, Economics
Every few years (2012, 2015, 2019), I warn that easy-money policies by the Federal Reserve are misguided. But not just because such policies eventually can lead to price inflation, which now has become a problem in the United States. Bad monetary policy also...
